So, what do you wear when you go birding? Like me, do you have favorite shirts that depict special birds or commemorate places you’ve been? Well, we’ve got some new ideas for your wardrobe!

We’ve just opened the Birdstack store, where you can find T-shirts and other goodies:

We’re starting off with two designs, both shown above.

One features the Birdstack logo and Web address. Show off your Birdstack pride and help spread the word about the Birdstack service with a genuine Birdstack tee! We’re not sure, but we think birds themselves are attracted to the Birdstack logo, so wearing Birdstack apparel in the field may increase your birding success. (Or maybe not, but can you really afford to take that chance?)

The second design is called “birder’s lingo” because it features several dozen of our odd, geeky, and fun expressions: pish, empid, warbler neck, crippler, sibe, and birdo to name a few. Oh, and let’s not forget acronyms like LBJ and BIGBY! Preliminary results indicate that wearing this design increases the success rate of first dates by up to 50 percent!

Dozens of style and color combinations are possible. You’re sure to find something that suits your taste … and remember, Christmas is coming. Any birders on your list? I bet there are….

We also have both designs available on canvas tote bags. Did you know that billions (yes, billions) of plastic bags are discarded each year? Far too many of them end up in places they shouldn’t; plus, it’s just a foolish waste of resources that aren’t going to last forever. Well, there’s something you can do about it. Take one (or two!) of our bags along on your next trip to the store.

And this isn’t just for our American friends. Printfection, the company we’ve selected, ships to many countries around the world. And hey, if you make your money in pounds or euros, this is a good time to buy goods priced in US dollars….

If you’re still not convinced, I’ll just close by mentioning that every sale in the Birdstack store generates a small amount of income to help keep the site running smoothly and to support the development of new features. Thank you for your support!

Have fun with the shirts. When you get one, put it on and take a picture. If you send it in, we’ll post it!

We’re guessing that some of you Birdstackers also use Facebook®, a very popular social networking site. We’ve just set up a Birdstack page on Facebook, so look us up and show your Birdstack pride by becoming a “fan”!

Just type “Birdstack” into the search box when you’re logged in to Facebook, or click on the badge below:

You can add photos or videos (we know you’ve got some lovely bird shots), chat with other Birdstackers, and keep up with the latest Birdstack news. See ya there!

Here at the Birdstack labs (Ha! We wish we had a lab!), we’ve just finished up a shiny new feature. We’ve been working on it for awhile, so without further ado … (drumroll please!)

Maps showing everybody’s observations are now available on species pages. Let’s take a look at the Galah page for an example. (Galahs are stunning pink Australian cockatoos. They look like raspberry sherbet, mmmm.)

I’d like to point out several things in the example above. First and most obvious is the map peppered with markers. You can click on a marker to find out more about observations made at that location. Clicking the link (see where my mouse is hovering?) will take you to Mosura’s page for that particular observation.

You’ll also note, circled in red, the “My observations” link. This link appears when you are logged in to your Birdstack account, and as you’d expect, it reloads the map with only your observations displayed.

Then below the map, you can see the page numbers, also circled in red. To keep the maps from being too slow and unwieldy, 50 observations are loaded at at time. If you want to see more, click on those links to keep exploring!

Now, you may or may not have noticed that the whole World Bird List section of Birdstack is now searchable. There’s a box at the top of order, family, genus, and species pages. You can type English family names, species name fragments, binomials, etc. into that box, and we’ll show you whatever we can find. That should make it easy to start exploring the maps.

Finally, I should explain which observations show up on the maps and which ones don’t. Observations must meet the following criteria to be displayed on the public maps:

1. The observation is public, not private.
2. The location is public, not private.
3. The location has latitude and longitude coordinates.

Again, that’s for public maps. When you click the “My observations” link, you (and only you) should be able to see your private observations and your observations made at private locations.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go check out some maps! While you’re at it, you might see some big holes in distributions, or species that aren’t represented at all. We’re guessing that you have data that can help fill those gaps — maybe it’s still in a paper notebook, or maybe you just haven’t added latitude and longitude to your list of locations.

So remember, just like the little Dutch boy did with the dike, if you see a hole, plug it up! (OK, OK, one of my Dutch friends insists that the story is merely an American fable, but you now have the power to do what the little Dutch boy never did.)